Look Up

This is my most favourite poem so I thought I should share it.

Look Up

By Gary Turk

I have 422 friends, yet I am lonely,

I speak to all of them everyday, yet none of them really know me.

The problem I have sits in the spaces between,

Looking into there eyes or a name on a screen.

I took a step back and opened my eyes,

I looked around and realised,

This media we call social is anything but,

When we open our computers, it’s the doors we shut.

All this technology,

It’s just an illusion.

Community, conpanionship, a sense of inclusion.

But when you step away from this device of delusion,

You awake to see a world of confusion.

A world where we’re slaves to the technology we’ve mastered,

Where information gets sold by some rich greedy master.

A world of self-interest, self-image, self-promotion,

Where we share our best bits but leave out the emotion.

Where we’re at our most happy with an experience we share,

But is it the same when no one is there?

Be there for your friends and they’ll be there too,

But no one will if a group message will do.

We edit and exaggerate, crave adulation.

We pretend not to notice the social isolation.

We put our words into order untill our lives are glistening,

We’re not even sure if anyone is listening.

Being alone isn’t the problem, let me just emphasise,

If you read a book, paint a picture or do some excersise.

You’re being productive, you’re being present, not reserved or reclused,

You’re being attentive and awake putting your time to good use.

So when you’re in public and you start to feel alone,

Put your hands behind your head,

Step away from the phone.

You don’t need to stare at your menu or at your contact list,

Just talk to one another, learn to co-exist.

I can’t stand to hear the silence of a busy commuter train,

When no one wants to talk for the fear of looking insane.

We’re becoming unsocial, it no longer satisfies,

To engage with one another and look into there eyes.

We’re surrounded by children, who since they were born,

Have watched us living like robots, and think it’s a norm.

It’s least likely you’ll win worlds best Dad if you can’t entertain a child without using an IPad.

When I was a kid, I’d never be home,

I’d be out with my friends on our bikes we’d roam,

I’d were holes in my trainers and graze up my knees,

Or build our own clubhouse high up in the trees.

So look up from your phone, shut down that display,

We have a finite existence,

A set number of days.

Don’t waste your life getting caught in the net,

Because when the end comes nothings worse then regret.

I am guilty too of being apart of this machine,

This digital world where we’re heard but not seen,

Where we type as we talk and we read as we chat,

Where we spend hours together,

Without making eye-contact.

So don’t give into a life where you follow the hype,

Give people your love, and not your “like”.

Disconnect from the need to be heard and defined.

Go out into the world, leave distractions behind.

So look up from your phone, shut down that display,

Go out into the world,

Live life the real way.

 

Lunatic Laws

Welcome to Fun Friday! For more crazy laws go to http://stupid-laws.laws.com/crazy-laws

In Salt Lake County Utah it is illegal to carry a violin in a paper bag.

In Massachusetts it is illegal to go to bed without bathing, however, in the same state, law prohibits bathing on Sundays

In Alabama it is illegal to wear a fake mustache to make people laugh in church.

In Alabama it illegal to throw salt on railroad tracks, and death is the penalty.

In Los Angeles courts it is illegal to cry on the stand.

In Saratoga, Florida no citizen can sing and wear a swimsuit at the same time.

In Illinois it is illegal to walk around without one dollar on them. If a citizens does not have at least one dollar in their possession, they will be charged with vagrancy.

In Kentucky every citizen is required to take a shower once a year.

In Louisiana a woman’s’ husband has to wave a flag in front of her car before she can drive it anywhere.

Crazy laws in Indiana prohibit gossiping, and talking bad about others behind their back. Additionally, anyone (14 and under) who curses, damns, or swears by the name of GOD, Jesus Christ, or the Holy Ghost, are fined two to three dollars per offense. They will also be charged a maximum fine of ten dollars a day.

 

Fun Friday

Welcome to Fun Friday! If you want to see more go to http://bootstrike.com/LaughterHell/Misc/miscs13.php

Gorillas sleep as much as fourteen hours per day.

The lifespan of a squirrel is about nine years.

The female lion does ninety percent of the hunting.

A group of twelve or more cows is called a flink.

Cats often rub up against people and furniture to lay their scent and mark their territory. They do it this way, as opposed to the way dogs do it, because they have scent glands in their faces.

Cats sleep up to eighteen hours a day, but never quite as deep as humans. Instead, they fall asleep quickly and wake up intermittently to check to see if their environment is still safe.

Money isn’t made out of paper; it’s made out of cotton.

A raisin dropped in a glass of fresh champagne will bounce up and down continuously from the bottom of the glass to the top.

315 entries in Webster’s 1996 Dictionary were misspelled.

During the chariot scene in ‘Ben Hur’ a small red car can be seen in the distance.

Because metal was scarce, the Oscars given out during World War II were made of wood.

There are no clocks in Las Vegas gambling casinos.

The name Wendy was made up for the book Peter Pan, there was never a recorded Wendy before!

There are no words in the dictionary that rhyme with: orange, purple, and silver!

Leonardo Da Vinci invented scissors.

A tiny amount of liquor on a scorpion will make it instantly go mad and sting itself to death.

The mask used by Michael Myers in the original “Halloween” was a Captain Kirk mask painted white.

Celery has negative calories! It takes more   calories to eat a piece of celery than the celery has in it to begin with. It’s the same with apples!

Guinness Book of Records holds the record for being the book most often stolen from Public Libraries.

 

World War Boy Description

He stands there in the bustling crowd, but he’s the one that stands out of the men, woman and children who are heavily packing boxes into the ship as well as saying goodbye to the soldiers off to war. They all stare at him, then sigh with pity. The poor boy has been through so much, memories ripped from his bare hands, nightmares of roaring fire engulfing a house in flames. The more it parades the more it grows, the shades of sharp orange, blood red and blinding yellow. The evil presence slithering towards him.”Boy! Help your poor hard working mother!” a man says scratching his scruffy beard. The boys velvet magenta coat and pants fit tightly topped with a purple hat and a slick blue feather. He dawdles over to his mother lifting boxes like they’re stones.
“Please cover your face. I’m embarassed,” she says gently brushing her hands along his burned face, along where the flames engulfed him. The elegant flicks of dark red along the side of his face.

“Embarassed? That I survived? That I’m healthy.”

“No! It’s just-”

“It’s just nothing! It’s just that you can’t accept me for who I am, that I was almost burned alive.”

“You know it’s not like that I just don’t want you to be made fun of.”

“Really? That’s your excuse for you not wanting to be a mother of an injured child? Because you don’t want to be the one known for ‘That girl with the burned kid’.”

She walks away in disgust but guilt never will overcme him because it’s the truth.

Hallucination

“I see her everywhere!” I say crinkling the tissues in my hands. I don’t hold in the tears.

“I want you to double your medicine intake by three.” He replies ignoring the comments about my hallucinations.

“Medicine isn’t helping! It’s making it worse!” I say shaking my hands in distress.

“It will help, please leave. You’re making this ridiculous,” he says pointing sternly to the door.

“Ridiculous?” I get up throwing the scrunched up tissue onto the ground cursing under my breath, I slam the door making my ears ring. Exiting the front door I begin to walk home whilst the sun leaks warmth onto my back. My bloodshot eyes stay locked onto the sidewalk, my pale face gets colder and colder despite the warmth of the sun. My shaking fingers run through my greasy hair. Then I hear the small footsteps of my hallucinations. A small girl who come up to my chin trots slighlty behind me, her blonde curls bouncing. “Leave me alone!” I scream walking a little faster. “We come from the dark!” she says catching up tom me.

“You really think that is important!”

“I could tell, you were thinking about it, you were thinking of killing me, your hallucinations.”

Just then she disappears into thin air. I walk into my cottage-like house and step into my dirty bathroom. I stare into the mirror, my eyes an empty void. I grab the orange pill tube and they whisper to me. “Don’t take the pill. Don’t take the pill.”

I slip it into my mouth and the voices stop. The world blends into black and I fell weightless.

 

The Bush

The sun gleams, glistening on the droplets showered on the long sheds of grass. Short, stumpy trees hold handfuls of brightly coloured green leaves trying to soak up the sunlight. A sweet honey, tropical smell lingers, glancing at the silky white flowers also reaching up to the sun. The long sheds of grass tickle the soles of my feet as I brush my long gentle fingers along a flower bush erupting a different smell, a creamy apple and berry smell. A sweet symphony echoes from a tree a short distance away, grabbing my attention as the trees escape from vision and new different sorts appear, oak, maple and pine. The whistling wind floods through each individual leaf making a cool, soothing noise. Then, silence.

Fun Facts

Hello and welcome to Fun Friday! For more go to http://www.sciencekids.co.nz/sciencefacts/food.html and also http://www.buzzfeed.com/justinabarca/food-facts-that-will-blow-your-mind#usoc4s

This special Fun Facts post is all about food!

McDonald’s fast food chains employ over 1.5 million  people around the world.

There are around 2000 different plant types that  humans use to cultivate food.

Cutting onions releases a gas which causes a  stinging sensation when it comes into contact with your eyes. Your body  produces tears to dilute the irritant and remove it from your eyes.

Pumpkins are usually labelled as vegetables but they contain seeds and are technically fruit.

China is the largest producer of garlic, producing over 10 million tons in  2008 and accounting for over 75% of world output.

Technically speaking, strawberries aren’t even berries!

The average apple contains around 130 calories.

India is the world’s largest producer of bananas, producing nearly 22 million  tons in 2007.

A Macdonalds burger can take up to 3 years to disintegrate

We share 50% of our DNA with bananas

When bananas were first discovered they used to have black seeds

The oldest evidence for soup is from 6,000 B.C. and calls for hippopotamus and sparrow meat.

Pringles once had a lawsuit trying to prove that they weren’t really potato chips.

Pound cake got its name from its original recipe, which called for a pound each of butter, eggs, sugar, and flour.

Ripe cranberries will bounce like rubber balls.

Consuming dairy may cause acne.

Most wasabi consumed is not real wasabi, but colored horseradish.

Apples belong to the rose family, as do pears and plums.

 

 

Frozen Time

I’ve always wanted to freeze time, to rewind and fast forward. To save the ecstatic and fun times, to fast forward the times when I was in misery. “Darling! You’re late for school!” My mother shrieks from downstairs. I slip on my frayed backpack trotting downstairs and miss my homework on my mahogany desk. “Quickly eat your breakfast before it gets cold.” She says moving the scratched plate towards me making a screeching noise on the grazed breafast table. French toast with powdered sugar, I stuff it into my mouth causing a cloud of sugary puff in the air. “Bye love! See you this afternoon!” She says as I escape through the open door. I close the door but it doesn’t move, It’s stuck, frozen. I turn around looking at the street whilst the sun beams on the dew sprinkled on the grass. The cars, the mailman, the neighbours stood cemented to where they stand, not moving, no sound, no birds singing their peaceful song, no busy bustle of the hustling street, just silence. But I’m not cemented to the ground, my feet are as free as can be. But the paralizing sensation soon tingles my feet, I try to sprint but my feet are no longer in my control. I try to scream but my lips uselessly sit there not allowing the words of fear to escape my lips. I’m stuck, fastened and worst of all, I can’t scream.

Fun Facts

Welcome to Fun Fridays! For more facts go to http://bootstrike.com/LaughterHell/Misc/miscs13.php

A crocodile can’t stick it’s tongue out.

People say “Bless you” when you sneeze because when you sneeze your heart stops for a mili-second.

More than 50% of the people in the world have never made or received a telephone call.

If you keep your eyes open by force when you sneeze, you might pop an eyeball out.

Rats and horses can’t vomit.

The cigarette lighter was invented before the match.

Thirty-five percent of the people who use personal ads for dating are already married.

In the course of an average lifetime you will, while sleeping eat 70 assorted insects and 10 spiders.

A crocodile can’t move its tongue and cannot chew its digestive juices are so strong that it can digest a steel nail.

Tea is said to have been discovered in 2737 BC by a Chinese emperor when some tea leaves accidentally blew into a pot of boiling water.

Rats multiply so quickly that in 18 months, two rats could have over a million descendants.

Wearing headphones for just an hour will increase the bacteria in your ear by 700 times.

In every episode of Seinfeld there is a Superman somewhere.

Every year about 98% of atoms in your body are replaced.

Hot water is heavier than cold.

If you went out into space, you would explode before you suffocated because there’s no air pressure.